


Terror Yet To Come

by Urbenmyth



Series: Tales Beyond The Archives [4]
Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: Claustrophobia, How far is the future is this?, Sci-Fi Magnus Archives!, The buried is still an asshole in a few centuries, who the hell knows
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-11
Updated: 2020-10-11
Packaged: 2021-03-08 02:40:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 817
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26948380
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Urbenmyth/pseuds/Urbenmyth
Summary: The world changes. Nations rise and fall, technology and science advances, fear ebbs and flows.But under it all, the Buried still waits.
Series: Tales Beyond The Archives [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1965088
Kudos: 17





	Terror Yet To Come

Switching off their work hologram, Ahron returned to their natural appearance. The brightly colored hair was one of the few indulgences they had, even if they had to cloak it under a brown hologram at work.

“Helix! Bring up financial data”

_ Uploading _

As it entered their chip, Ahron’s heart sank. Not good. Not good at all. They might need to go into some more… unconventional lines of work. The AI crackers paid under the table and, well, it's not like they’d really be hurting  _ people _ , right?

They looked at Helix’s little black box and sighed.

They’d find another way. Somehow. Still, nothing to do about it now. For now, it was time to relax.

“Helix! Activate VR systems”

_ Activating. Please select a destination. _

“Flying, please”

_ Understood _

Ahron felt the small room around them fade, as they found themselves hovering far above a tropical island. For a few minutes, they soared above, free of the weight of the world at last. Then they saw it.

A black patch at the edge of the world.

Weird. They flew over to touch it. It felt like...pressure. Not any kind of texture, just pressure. Must be activating just those parts of the VR simulators and none of the others. Weird sensation. Not a pleasant one either.

“Helix? There’s a visual glitch here. Some kind of weird artefact”

_ Understood. Scanning system _

Ahron waited, looking unnerved at this wall that had interrupted their escape. Tall and solid, stretching horizon to horizon. 

_ Scan complete. No errors found. _

“What do you mean, no errors found? I can see it right now! I can touch it!” They slammed their hand against the wall to demonstrate. It didn’t react in any way. So, definitely a glitch then, never designed to react to the in-simulation physics.

Which means you can't break through it, they suddenly and irrationally thought.

_ No errors found. _

“Fine. Open up coding for manual examination.”

_ Understood _

Walls of code appeared before them. This was frustrating, but it shouldn’t be too hard to figure this out. Something failing to load properly, most likely. They can sort that out, and then they can get back to their game.

They ran over the code.

Nothing. Everything seemed to be loading fine.

“Hmm. Ok, fine, I’ll fix it later. Helix! Change simulation to Villa”

_ Understood _

A quick flicker, and they were sitting in a fancy mid-20th century villa. Ahron had always been a fan of history. Sitting down, they reached for their food and looked up.

The same black wall. Now on all four directions. Not only that, but it had gotten closer. A decent chunk of the building was swallowed in textureless black.

“Helix? There is definitely an error”

_ Scanning. No errors detected. _

Leaning back, they sighed. They’d have to do a manual check.

“Ok, fine. Helix! End simulation.”

_ Error: command not found. _

“What?” They span around. The black wall was closer. How had they remembered the command wrong?

“Helix! Stop simulation! End game! Let me out!”

_ Error: Command not found. _

Oh fuck. They looked around. Now all that was left of the simulation was just the patio they were on. Everything else was the glitch. Even the sky was replaced by featureless black.

They remembered the feeling of pure pressure. No texture, no substance. Just pure stimulation of the nerves.

Ahron started to panic.

“Helix! What’s going on?”

_ Scanning. Analysis: there is no escape. You are forever deep below creation. _

What the fuck does that mean?. What was happening? The walls are closer now. Just this table and chair. They could barely stand up now, without their body being blocked by the glitch. The VR system was designed to provide artificial life support. If they couldn’t leave...how long would they be alive in here for?

Ok. Fuck. Have to think this through. It didn’t react to physics, but it did count as a barrier to movement, they couldn't ghost through it. Was this deliberately designed? By who?

“Helix! Run virus check! I think you’re infected!”

_ Scanning. No suspicious programs found.  _

Fuck. Ok, last resort. Ahron reached up to their head. They could tear out the receiver of the VR implant. It would hurt like hell but at least they wouldn’t be trapped here. Even if they couldn’t see it, they knew where it was roughly, and they had long enough nails to tear it out.

But they couldn’t find it. It should be here. It should be...

The walls were on them now. The pressure crushed them into the floor. The senses were deactivated. No sight, no sound, barely even touch. The only thing the computer was still simulating was the crushing pressure. They tried to scream, but their simulated mouth would barely open.

“Helix. Helix please. Help me!”

As the walls finally encompassed everything, they heard one last message through the deafening silence.

**Error: Command not found.** ****

And then the code swallowed them forever.


End file.
